The National Football League has a primetime game on their Thursday night schedule between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns and neither team can win.
I guess it is going to be a rare tie, because I’m telling you the Steelers in Cleveland and the Browns at home have a zero percent chance of winning tonight. Okay, that zero percent for one of these two teams is likely to climb to 100% based on tonight’s result but allow me to explain why neither of these teams can win.
The Steelers are under the direction of first-year Pittsburgh Head Coach Mike McCarthy. He takes over this longstanding proud franchise from the only coach in history to serve an entire career of more than three years and not suffer a losing season. Mike Tomlin was on the job in Pittsburgh for 19 seasons and led this franchise to a winning record every year.
Like Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak and Tom Brady’s seven Super Bowl wins, that is a record likely never to be broken. He also stepped aside at a time when the roster of the Steelers was not up to recent standards. Particularly, and most importantly, at the quarterback position.
This is an organization that won four Super Bowls behind Terry Bradshaw and added a couple more Vince Lombardi Trophies during the 18 seasons Ben Roethlisberger was their starting quarterback. This year, and in recent seasons, the Steelers are looking for a reliable replacement … and they haven’t found it. They haven’t won a postseason game since Roethlisberger retired and today are led by Aaron Rodgers, who is on his last legs while approaching his 43rd birthday.
Rodgers has already claimed this is his last season … and in all likelihood it will end with an injury before the calendar shifts to January.
Still, last week, the Steelers bounced from scoring three points in a loss to the New England Patriots to winning an important division game against the previously undefeated Cincinnati Bengals, 30-27. Rodgers, who is nails on a chalkboard with most of his press conferences that consistently include a penchant for throwing fellow players and coaches under the bus in wake of a loss, was all gushy on how well his offense did in their win over the Bengals.
Mr. Rodgers, let me tell you why you survived the Cincinnati test. You came into the game trailing in the division race off a loss, against a Bengals team looking to extend their advantage in the AFC North Division with a road win. If the Bengals could have won in that spot it would have had to indicate your Steelers were one of the bottom five teams and the Bengals one of the top five.
I didn’t pick that sweet motivational spot for your team last week because I have so little confidence you are not a bottom five team. You survived, not because you returned to your youthful skills, but because the Bengals, in the words of Looney in Let it Ride, “Pissed it all away.”
Now, you go from that sweet spot in which you got a win to being favored on the road in a division game.
Can you say dead?
But, before we jump with a wager on your bleak prospects in your game following last week’s win, we have to consider your opponent … the Cleveland Browns.
Under their new head coach, Todd Monken, the Browns have put together back-to-back wins as quarterback Deshaun Watson looks to revive his career.
You know what the chances are of the Browns winning three in a row? Also, from the movie starring Richard Dreyfus we borrow a line, “You like the odds-on lightning?”
I am much more interested in the prospects of betting against the Steelers next week when they host the Indianapolis Colts if they pull off a win tonight. And if the Browns beat Pittsburgh in front of their home fans tonight, make plans on boarding the New York Jets next week when they host the Browns.
Good things to come, nothing to bet on tonight.